"Absolutely"

Back in his No Limit days, New Orleans rap veteran Fiend delivered his lyrics in a scrambled, pitched-up growl, sounding like a demon starving for souls. These days, though, he's adapted a wizened grown-man mutter, and when he ad-libs between verses, he sounds almost exactly the same as he does when he's rapping. By falling in with old No Limit buddy Curren$y's up-and-coming weed-rap clique, Fiend has done great favors for both himself and for rap listeners, since now we get to hear him using that husky drawl over top-shelf psychedelic rap production like the woozy, cut-up glitch-thump on "Absolutely". It's a weed song, one of many on Fiend's excellent new Tennis Shoes & Tuxedos mixtape. And it's a weed song with very worldly, relatable concerns, like how the hell are you supposed to get that smell out of the cord in your hoodie? But the song isn't really about anything as specific as weed. Instead it's about a feeling-- that sensation you get when you hear an excellent rapper find a groove that fits him exactly, to the point where his voice sounds like it's always been a part of this beat. And when the track drops away into a wobbly little keyboard riff on the chorus, and Fiend breaks out a great little headspun sing-song, the whole world drifts just slightly out of focus for a second.